Department of Public Health, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary.
Faculty of Pharmacy, Center for Health Technology Assessment and Pharmacoeconomic Research, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary.
BMC Med Res Methodol. 2023 Oct 18;23(1):240. doi: 10.1186/s12874-023-02036-x.
Data harmonisation is essential in real-world data (RWD) research projects based on hospital information systems databases, as coding systems differ between countries. The Hungarian hospital information systems and the national claims database use internationally known diagnosis codes, but data on medical procedures are recorded using national codes. There is no simple or standard solution for mapping the national codes to a standard coding system. Our aim was to map the Hungarian procedure codes (OENO) to SNOMED CT as part of the European Health Data Evidence Network (EHDEN) project.
We recruited 25 professionals from different specialties to manually map the procedure codes used between 2011 and 2021. A mapping protocol and training material were developed, results were regularly revised, and the challenges of mapping were recorded. Approximately 7% of the codes were mapped by more people in different specialties for validation purposes.
We mapped 4661 OENO codes to standard vocabularies, mostly SNOMED CT. We categorized the challenges into three main areas: semantic, matching, and methodological. Semantic refers to the occasionally unclear meaning of the OENO codes, matching to the different granularity and purpose of the OENO and SNOMED CT vocabularies. Lastly, methodological challenges were used to describe issues related to the design of the above-mentioned two vocabularies.
The challenges and solutions presented here may help other researchers to design their process to map their national codes to standard vocabularies in order to achieve greater consistency in mapping results. Moreover, we believe that our work will allow for better use of RWD collected in Hungary in international research collaborations.
基于医院信息系统数据库的真实世界数据（RWD）研究项目中，数据协调至关重要，因为各国的编码系统存在差异。匈牙利医院信息系统和国家索赔数据库使用国际知名的诊断代码，但医疗程序的数据则使用国家代码记录。将国家代码映射到标准编码系统没有简单或标准的解决方案。我们的目标是将匈牙利手术代码（OENO）映射到 SNOMED CT，作为欧洲健康数据证据网络（EHDEN）项目的一部分。
我们招募了来自不同专业的 25 名专业人员，手动将 2011 年至 2021 年期间使用的手术代码进行映射。制定了映射协议和培训材料，定期审查结果，并记录映射的挑战。大约 7%的代码由不同专业的更多人进行映射，以验证目的。
我们将 4661 个 OENO 代码映射到标准词汇表，主要是 SNOMED CT。我们将挑战分为三个主要领域：语义、匹配和方法学。语义是指 OENO 代码的含义偶尔不明确，匹配是指 OENO 和 SNOMED CT 词汇表的粒度和目的不同。最后，方法学挑战用于描述与上述两个词汇表设计相关的问题。
这里提出的挑战和解决方案可能有助于其他研究人员设计他们的流程，将其国家代码映射到标准词汇表，以实现映射结果的更大一致性。此外，我们相信我们的工作将允许更好地利用匈牙利在国际研究合作中收集的 RWD。
